Serialization and Deserialization is different than Marshalling and Unmarshalling. Serialization is the mechanism of converting object to stream of bytes and deserialzation is the mechanism to convert stream of bytes into Object. Read more about Serialization and Deserialization at http://www.dotnetfunda.com/articles/article98.aspx. This is typically used in terms of Web Services or transferring object/data from one location to another location.